Lions get ready to roar

The Suresh Raina-led Gujarat Lions may be one of the two latest entrants this IPL season, but the team is brimming with several experienced players who have had a big impact on the T20 league over the years with different franchises, starting with their skipper.

Majority of the big-ticket players of the Rajkot-based franchise, which was bought by Keshav Bansal of Intex Technologies, are drawn from the now-suspended Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals. Raina, Ravindra Jadeja, Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Bravo were part of Super Kings while James Faulkner, Dhawal Kulkarni and Pravin Tambe appeared for Royals.

Lions focused on all-rounders during the draft pick held only for the two new teams; the other one being the Rising Pune Supergiants who were more interested in specialist batsmen and bowlers. Jadeja, with his left-arm spin and handy batting, Bravo and Faulkner – the pace-bowling all-rounders – provide depth and variety both in bowling and batting.

Lions batting fire-power is a big plus. Though inconsistent, McCullum can take the game away in no time while Aaron Finch and Dwayne Smith are T20 cricket’s acknowledged stars. Raina, the most successful IPL batsman, Dinesh Karthik, India’s under-19 captain Ishan Kishan, Jadeja, among others, complete the local batting component.

The four-player cap on foreign players in the playing 11 will mean that Smith and Finch, both openers, will have to sit out at least in the initial stages with McCullum being an assured pick at the top of the order. With Bravo and Faulkner most likely to feature in the final 11, the remaining one slot may either go to Dale Steyn or Andrew Tye. A couple of years ago the selection of Steyn was never a matter of debate but things have changed since then.

It also remains to be seen if McCullum will keep wickets. If he does, they can accommodate an extra Indian batsman if they are looking beyond Karthik.The Gujarat outfit also has a decent local pace unit in Praveen Kumar, Dhawal Kulkarni and Pradeep Sangwan while they will have to manage with either Shadab Jakati or Tambe when it comes to specialist spin.

The squad: Suresh Raina (captain),  Brendon McCullum, Aaron Finch, Dinesh Karthik, Dwayne Smith, Dwayne Bravo, Ravindra Jadeja, James Faulkner, Dhawal Kulkarni, Eklavya Dwivedi, Praveen Kumar, Dale Steyn, Andrew Tye, Ishan Kishan, Pravin Tambe, Jaydev Shah, Pradeep Sangwan, Shadab Jakati, Shivil Kaushik, Amit Mishra, Sarabjit Ladda, Akshdeep Nath, Umang Sharma and Paras Dogra.Past record: Gujarat are making their debut this season